Hotel / Residences - Colombo | Woods Bagot

CV + Portfolio

The job hunt is always challenging, and having to put together a CV and Portfolio that stands out amongst the rest is truly a nightmare!

How does one brand oneself??

This was my attempt

Photobooks

After living and traveling extensively through Europe, Turkey and Morocco for a year from 2011 to 2012 and then spending a little over 3 months in South America in 2013, I wanted to compile the best photographs of both trips, as well as the images with the most memories, into two photo books to display and hold those memories for the rest of my life.

I painstakingly sorted through thousands of images to select only the best, and toyed with a number of layouts before settling on this square format. I also illustrated maps for the cover pages - labeling only the places I visited, and colour coding the modes of transport between them. I chose simple black and white images for the covers which encapsulated the feel of each trip.

In a digital age it's so lovely to have something physical to pour over and remember some of life's greatest moments and experiences.

'Man Cave' | AJ+C

In a Surry Hills Warehouse there is a unique sculptural pod being created by a design team at AJ+C. Affectionately nicknamed the ‘Man Cave’ within the office, this curvilinear form containing master bedroom and ensuite, was realised through cutting edge technology both in design and manufacturing. Using a combination of 3D modeling in Rhino and scripting through Grasshopper, the intriguing shape took digital form.

Involved at the initial design stages, I modeled the external shell and internal walls which were created from a single surface, bent and molded to imitate the initial concept sketches, so that the pod sat snuggly between the existing warehouse rafters. Once the overall shape was established another colleague and I designed the internal furniture to connect to and become a part of the pod. These peel away from or into the internal wall surface, and a shapely stand-alone entertainment console and wardrobe is positioned to divide the bathroom and bedroom.

Advanced 3D model making skills allowed this unique design to become a reality. Three-dimensional files could be shared with the Brisbane based yacht fabricators, Mouldcam, in order to manufacture the exact form of the pod. These digital technologies gave the design process a simplicity which allowed for a timely fabrication and the stunning results of this incredibly detailed and captivating form.

Student Accomodation - Joondalup | AJ+C

This student accommodation project was completed in 2015. Located in Joondalup, WA; approximately 30 minutes drive north of Perth, as part of the Edith Cowen University Campus. The East side of the complex faces onto extensive scrubland on the banks of Joondalup Lake, and the West towards the Campus.

AJ+C wanted to create a dynamic space for students with open communal spaces and a mix of shared living quarters as well as private. I was heavily involved in the entire DA and CC documentation, and continue to be involved now that the project is under construction. We designed the apartments as repetitive modules, utilising just one layout for wet areas as well as kitchen / living / study joinery, which was positioned accordingly in each apartment.

I collaborated with many of the material combinations and specifications. Externally we chose playful earthy toned brick patterns which create an ‘old city wall’ that fronts onto the scrubland, while above the main entry bright coloured window shades of different sizes pepper the façades, protruding at different angles and animating this corner.

Hotel / Resort - Angsana Alboran | Woods Bagot

This Woods Bagot project is located in Almuñécar, Granada, Spain. A Hotel, Resort and Residences Masterplan, perched on a curved cliff top overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Woods Bagot wanted to make the most of the commanding views and the steeply sloping site. The masterplan is made up of a number of hotel and apartment pods, connected with private paths, large deck areas and number of interconnected and stepping pools, all cascading down towards the sea.

For my part I was mostly involved in three different interiors schemes we created for the hotel accommodation to reflect the positioning and prestige of each unit, the Panoramic Premier, Terrace Suite and Garden Suite. Along with the hotel, I also took part in the graphics and documentation of one, two and three bed standard residences as well as one, two and three bed penthouses which were designed and formed into Long Block, and Short Block’s A + B modules stepped across the higher portion of the site. I worked on the form, façade and interiors studies that were made for each block as well as the spa, hotel reception and lounge.

Capturing Kodak | RMIT

This project begins with an adaptive reuse of an old industrial Kodak Factory building located in Coburg, Victoria. Reprogramming the building with a Film and Photography Complex and community Aquatics Centre allows for the strategic insertion of new elements whilst revealing and restoring the old.

This collision of programs and materials aims to reveal the architecture of this iconic building whilst responding to the local context. The project extends across a park, divided by paving, follies and buildings: traces of the old and fragments of the new. Programs overlap and intersect by extracting from the existing and the insertions of new. Abrupt visual connections are forged between both programs where elements such as the internal pool collide with the existing building.

Light and transparent, these new insertions contrast with the weight and solidarity of the existing, whilst internally volumes of program and circulation gantries appear to float inside the existing shell.

One two One | RMIT

This project began with students seeking to produce a full-scale flat-packable structure by coupling reclaimed laminate sheet material and advanced digital fabrication techniques. Designed as urban installations initially for the Melbourne State of Design Festival, and then to be a part of the London Festival of Architecture, the work explores systems of digital unfolding and physical refolding, while keeping within the constraints of international shipping logistics such as weight to- volume efficiencies and time-to-cost ratios.

The ‘Sliceform’ urban chaise lounge began by creating ‘waffle grid’: segments of flat laminate slotted together at intervals to provide structural integrity as well as allowing the lounge to fold in on itself and therefore be flat packed. Scripting using Grasshopper made the fabrication process possible, and an in depth assembly process was designed to provide even more structural stability preventing thin sections where the brittle laminate might crack or snap, as well as affording a higher comfort level with a tighter surface grid.

This project was not only involved in the Melbourne State of Design 2009 and the London Festival of Architecture 2009, but then went on to be exhibited at both the Shanghai and Beijing Biennales in 2010 and finally was part of an international publication by UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) titled Studioplex.

Housing in Carlton | RMIT

This project is about combining a weaving network of dispersing introverted pathways and extroverted public spaces, which translate into a dynamic and interesting experience for the residents, and responds to the surrounding context.

The density of the buildings is concentrated to face the busiest streets forming a community front, which gradually peters out towards the more private boundaries, allowing more sun penetration. The timber screening provides security from the street, and is designed at each level to best provide appropriate sunlight and privacy. Residents are encouraged to interact with the architecture by arranging windows and screens to control light and airflow.

The angles of the form allow the apartments to have more north facing windows and north south ventilation. The base design is a modular form that is repeated across the site. This form breaks apart and green space gets larger and provides different apartment types including individual town houses.

Perspective Gallery | RMIT

The Perspective Gallery project focused on a response to light; the form stems from the mapping of sunlight as it passes through the site. Beginning by massing the total volume of space, which is then carved and eroded by the sun’s contact throughout the day, creating a multi-faceted form that wraps a small existing building.

The light is introduced internally through a number of roof lenses, which bend the light and direct it down through the levels of the gallery. In the afternoons these beams of sunlight hit the internal walls, and here openings are carved to allow the light to spill back out into the existing courtyard and street making the building almost porous.

Knuckles | RMIT

Expanded Field | RMIT

'Expanded Field' was a research elective at RMIT University which each fortnight, looked at a different esquisse to research site, place, form, program, and the approach one might take to all of these starting points.

Site / Representation - Sand Helsel

“The site is a major component of the Major Project (and particularly in the Expanded Field research stream). It will provide the context for your proposals. Most maps lie, or express the biases of the mapmaker. We expect you to become biased mapmakers.

This esquisse is intended to expand the means and possibilities for interrogating site. Sites are not merely selected; they are designed through the process of representation. You need to ‘design’ the site of you Major Project through the process of mapping.

Mapping implies intent – selection, analysis, critique. You will be expected to have a first-hand experience of and engagement with the site, and represent it accordingly. Representation is not description. It can be used strategically to expose hidden site phenomena. Note that tracing existing maps is not mapping, or an adequate form of representation. The uncritical use of (un-manipulated) photography will not be considered a medium.”

Redesign - Graham Crist

“This esquisse involves redesigning a work of architecture of your choice. Architecture depends on a site or location and it depends on a program or a user. Buildings however exist partly in our metal space, or imagination, independent of these physical things. So, we can think about architecture independent of site and program, and transfer its ideas into new formats and locations.

It is important to understand where our architecture comes from, how it relates to a body of knowledge. This is often helped by examining precedent. The development of our judgement is similarly important. Choosing the building, determining what we like, what we think is important, is a part of our design process. Understanding the flaws in something important is important in moving forward. Separating the work from the architect who created it helps this.

It is hard to do good architecture if you don’t love architecture. Things we like are very motivating in the design process. It is not necessary to be detached in order to be critical. There is nothing dumb in saying ‘I like this because…’ or ‘I hate this because…’ ”

Program Investigation - Mel Dodd

“This esquisse is intended to examine and unpack the idea of program – to really interrogate the term and consider it with precision and freshness. What is program? At its simplest interpretation the program of a building is what happens there; how people USE and OCCUPY the space and to what purpose. It is what you DO in a place. Functionalism is a much used expression to describe the (connected) relationship between human activity and form. However, the term can be reductivist; a narrow and empirical way of classifying social activity, as if life were just a series of mechanical tasks, eating, ablutions, working, reading, dining etc. Use can and should involve misuse, appropriation, unexpected events and idiosyncrasies.

Human activity is a much richer sequence of events and situations motivated by emotional, economic, political and psychological complexities and nuances. These ‘other’ infrastructures – social, economic, political – are arguably more profound structures of everyday life than the built structures which accommodate them, and yet they are often invisible in comparison to the physical environment we inhabit. Consequently there are often marginalised in conventional architectural investigations and recordings. This esquisse will be an opportunity to foreground the ‘lived’ realm in your observation.”